British Expats - Accents

British Expats (https://britishexpats.com/forum/)

- New Zealand (https://britishexpats.com/forum/new-zealand-83/)

- - Accents (https://britishexpats.com/forum/new-zealand-83/accents-884769/)

I've been here nearly 11 years and I still don't always understand things the kiwis say. It really is a strange set of accents.
Kiwis usually say they don't have regional accents but they certainly have variations in the way they speak.

To my ear, some seem to willfully mangle vowel sounds, especially news reporters! Others talk like they have a mouth full of cotton wool.

I sometimes have to get my six year-old daughter to repeat herself until I understand what word she's saying!

What inspired this post was a woman I overheard the other week in Big Save furniture, who was looking at a new biid (the thing you sleep on) and asking about different meat-tresses. Or that's what it sounded like to me.

Weird.

Why do they say "this is my one" or "this is your one"? What's wrong with "this is mine" or "this is yours"?

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobClubley (Post 12080176)

Wet Pets = Wit Pits. Sitting on one's deck becomes a a very childish double entendre. I have no idea how, pretty much, a bunch of British folk managed to totally screw up every vowel. Weird indeed. I find 'Can I grab........." whatever they want a bit strange too. Why not "Can I have........"????? There are not really any posh kiwis either unlike the UK where posh folk stand out a mile. Funny little country! No regional dialects, apart from Stewart Island apparently.

my boss said to me today, "do you have ants?"
I replied "no"
"oh we always have one or two for Christmas and one your I got 20".

I looked over at him somewhat confused to see he was looking at an email about Christmas hams.

Now that made more sense

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrsFychan (Post 12080201)

A Ferry is Feary and when they sung at kindy "we're going on a beer hunt" I was horrified that alcohol was so openly spoken about at this tender age. Only to find it was a 'bear hunt'. A pen becomes a pin and so on.

It's not always consistent though.
The lady doing the train announcements says "Ridwooad" (Redwood) but she says "Wellington".

My daughter is an expert in making a on syllable word into two or three.

Grown = growan.
etc.

Yea I pretty much don't understand a word my children say these days.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SSky (Post 12080319)

Yea I pretty much don't understand a word my children say these days.

And I thought it was just me!!!

A couple of visits back my good lady was amused to hear someone asking for shatter proof glass. In a Kiwi accent.

Probably time to post this link :-)

I do like the Kiwi accent, but some of the pronunciations do make me chuckle. A friend at work said she was going outside to get some "ear". I couldn't figure out why she needed or wanted a new body part for the side of her face...

I've heard the word 'style' pronounced 'steal' which is confusing.

I don't know yet how they say 'steal'..

I'm terrible with understanding lots of British accents so it's been a struggle to learn the bizarre NZ way of speaking.

I always laugh at "egg" being pronounced "igg"😂

My kiwi wife makes me laugh all the time with her kiwi pronunciation, i always take the mickey out of her, anything that's supposed to be 'E' as in 'egg', becomes 'I' like 'igg', twinty pince etc.

I've discovered that I have to talk with a slight Kiwi accent to be understood. I'm so sick of customer service representatives on the phone thinking my surname is Owen when I say Allen. Drives me insane. I've had to resort to calling myself Illen and then they understand me Doh!

Reminded that back in the '80s on our first trip to NZ we were staying at a camp site in Rotorua.

Chatting to some nice ladies, and they asked where I was from.

England, I replied.

But you don't have an accent! They cried.

Had to tell them that, on the other hand, they did.:lol: